


Dangerous Friends

by Lt_Kickbutt



Series: Climbing the Ladder [6]
Category: RWBY
Genre: F/M, Kidnapping, Stakeout, world building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-04
Updated: 2016-03-03
Packaged: 2018-05-24 15:31:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6158239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lt_Kickbutt/pseuds/Lt_Kickbutt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Acting on his latest tip Roman and Neo find out how deep the underground world goes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Joy of Spywork

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this one took a little longer than I wanted. The whole stakeout didn't last as long as I liked so I threw in an extra wrinkle.

                Roman’s eye lids laid heavily on him tonight. He and his partner Neo were parked across the street, in the front seats of their car, and waiting for something to happen in the apartment they were casing. Three floors above them Qrow Branwen fumbled around his temporary apartment in Vale. Roman had long since removed the headphones that were picking up all the feedback from the bugged apartment, allowing it all to simply record. To stay awake Roman went over every detail of the last few days.

                “Where is the little sidekick always following you around? What was her name again?” Junior topped off a third of scotch causing Roman to grimace at the quality. Slouching forward Roman sat alone on the far side of the bar.

                “Neo you mean. She’s out with a friend of ours tonight. Doing girl things or something, I don’t know. Something fun hopefully.”

                “I had always heard you two were part and parcel. People who claim they know you claim she’s totally helpless without you. ‘Psychotic and crippled’ is what I hear.” Roman’s eyes thinned into a glare as he pushed his bar glass over, dumping the contents and chipping the edge.

                “Sorry there Junior. I slipped wondering who would claim to know _me_. Put it on the bill.”

                Junior, astutely aware of what he had done answered back, “God damn it.” Mopping up with a towel he continued, “Well then why don’t you tell me what she is?”

                Roman sat up with renewed vigor at the proposition, “Neo is a great friend. I mean…I make all of our friends, but she is especially good with the great ones. And the people who call her psychotic are not friends, she’s charming.”

                “So she’s just a friend? A charming friend?”

                Roman spun around to survey the dance floor for familiar faces. “Much more than that Junior, but at least now you won’t be a lying sack of shit if anyone asks about her.”

                “Whatever Torchwick. I don’t want be asked, I’m out now anyway.”

                Scanning the room Roman spotted a familiar head of hair, golden blonde cascading all the way down her backside. As she turned her head there was no mistaking it, “What’s one of the beacon squirts doing here Junior?”

                With a sigh he answered, “Blondie. She might as well run the fucking place when she’s around, I can’t ask her to leave anymore or she’ll start taking shots at me.”

                Roman spoke with a perfect shit eating grin across his face, “And how did that come about?”

                “One night she came around looking for me to do a job. Get some information on her biological mother. Neither of us were pleased with how little I found, she paid for my time though. And now she just comes to hang around on some nights, ask if I found anything else.”

                “A girl after information? Those are the kind of people I like to barter with. So what did you find about this mysterious mother?”

                “Hey man if you can find her and get Blondie out of here then great. I don’t even have a full name. Last name is Branwen, the squirt’s uncle, and the mother’s brother is Qrow Branwen.”

                “Jesus. Big fish. I hate messing with big fish.” Roman turned back around and motioned for another drink.

                Junior spoke as he pour, “Right well, whoever this girl is there is no way she lives in any of the kingdoms, I’ve searched high and low. Her brother might know something but it’d be impossible to approach him. I had him followed a little, when he does come to Vale he always stays in the same apartment…”

                A loud throaty snore from Neo snapped Roman out of his trance. Looking over she was curled into a ball, with her head wedged between the window and the seat and her face covered by Roman’s bowler hat. Neo’s snoring always made Roman smile, it could be the closest thing to hearing her speak and he always teased her about it. She had been promising him she would stay awake the entire time, and as the stakeout approached the end of the third night in a row Roman could hardly blame her for falling asleep. Looking at his watch it was five in the morning and after some bribing of the landlord Roman knew this was the final day Qrow had paid for in Vale. She had to show up now or never.

                Reaching over Roman brushed a lock of brown hair out of Neo’s face and behind her ear. He lingered on her cheek for a moment which made the girl stir. Sitting upright she attempted to stretch her arms out and nearly smacked Roman across the face with a yawn and a smile.

                “Sleeping well then?!” Looking around Neo’s face turned red in a hot blush. “Yeah, you ought to be embarrassed. I’ve been all alone for three hours now.” Neo pointed to the discarded headset, “No nothing yet. No one has gone in. This guy has been awake all night though, mostly drinking.”

                Neo reached down to her bag of snacks between her feet grabbing up a package of zebra cakes. Ripping open the plastic she handed one cake to Roman and took up her own.  She nibbled on her own cake waiting for Roman to take a bite. Roman tore off a chunk and ate the sugary bite.

                Poking her finger into the cream in the center Neo pulled it out and rubbed her digit across Roman’s cheek and onto his lips. Bits of cake and spit flew as Neo grabbed her sides laughing hysterically.

                “Yeah well. I’m just going to keep it there.” Roman turned as far away from as he could, rolled down his window, and threw his cake onto the street. Sitting up and facing forward Neo didn’t budge for several moments. When Roman finally glanced her way she was staring back at him, “Look, I’m sorry. I’m just tired.” Roman rubbed his eyes and wiped off the frosting on his face. Frowning Neo looked up at the third story apartment with the light still on and back to the headphones sounding off Qrow’s constant pacing. Leaning forward she tapped on the navigation screen in the car twice and it laid out the route back home. The navigation voice startled Roman into turning his head and found his partner looking up at him with wide eyes.

                “We can’t go home yet. We’re here now, we might as well wait it out. Sorry this job isn’t as exciting.” Roman canceled the navigator and Neo’s face turned to a snarl. Roman tried to ease the situation, “If this works then we can get Goldielocks to help us, if what Junior says is true she has been searching for this woman for months. He is our only lead.”

                Rolling her eyes Neo ground her fist in her open palm, “I know you don’t like the girl, but I have a plan for her. Besides, you can kill her if it comes to it.” Leaning her head against the chilled window she exhaled and drew a spiral in the condensation before wiping it away with her sleeve.

                Roman looked down at her bag searching for something to talk about again, “Do you have any more of those mad libs books?” Cringing as he spoke Roman relaxed when Neo snapped around, smile returning, and dove into her bag. Tugging out a book she flipped through the pages until she reached a blank one.

                Placing the book between herself and Roman he began to read, “Alright. ‘Letter From Camp’ Dear…need a relative…” Neo clicked her pen and wrote in her word in the blank space. “Dear Mom, I am having a-” Roman wrote his word as he read through it, “sweet time at camp. The counselor is…adjective…” Neo quickly wrote her word, giggling away. The pair worked through the page, trading yawns and smiles as the creak of the loose floorboards echoed through the headphones.

                Holding up the finished page Roman read aloud, “Dear Mom, I am having a sweet time at camp. The counselor is torn and the food is vengeful. I met Coco and we became dumb friends. Unfortunately, Coco is soapy and I smiled my tooth so we couldn’t go tripping like everyone else. I need more hair ties and an Atlas sharpener, so please literally jump more when you scream back. Your brother, Neo.”

               Neo shrugged with a smile, “Yeah you’re right. That one could have been better.” Suddenly the readout spiked as the sound of a door shutting came through their earphones. The pair remained motionless and silent as they stared at the headphones.

              “Qrow. It’s good to see you finally.” The voice was unknown, sounding like a woman in her late thirties. The pair glanced at each other hopefully but it was impossible to know if this was Yang’s mysterious mother.

             “Couldn’t get here any earlier? The sun is about to come up!”

              “My apologies, I had to arrive undetected. Could I get a drink of that?” The microphone picked up the loud swallows of the woman drinking greedily. When she finally stopped she exhaled a nervous sigh.

              “How has Yang been doing at Beacon?” Roman and Neo looked at each with wide eyes as they became more and more optimistic.

              “As if you actually care. But, she has been doing well from what Tai tells me. I haven’t gotten to see them yet.”

              “Them?”                                                                                                                                                                             

              “Her sister Ruby, Summer’s daughter, actually got moved up two years by Ozpin himself and has joined her sister at Beacon. They are even on the same team.”

              “I do care Qrow. Yang is the reason I am here this-” Roman grabbed up the headphones and placed them over his ears to make sure he did not miss a single word. Neo clapped excitedly for the sake of the plan and all the hours they’ve spent in this car. Roman swung over and grasped her hands and got her to stop. When she got the message Roman caressed her fingers with his thumb, turned, brought her hand to his lips, and placed a delicate kiss.

              Several minutes passed with Roman focusing hard on the conversation in his ear. Occasionally he would smile and nod to relieve his partner’s worries. “This is just what the blonde hair snot asked for. Their conversation has moved on, but this is enough. Let’s go home Neo.”


	2. On Display

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick edit something I wanted to mention. Chapter two here is going to be rather confusing if you haven't read the other four stories in the series. I encourage you all to go back and read, but if you enjoyed chapter 1 the other 4 stories are similar writing but each unique kind of story.

Roman beat on the steering wheel excitedly as he slowed to a stop at the light. “This is perfect! Thank you for coming with me that could have been a nightmare.” The light turned green and Roman turned to his partner with a wide smile. Her return smile dropped quickly, her eyes widened in shock, and her jaw dropped as she watched an oncoming car soar into the intersection and T-bone their car on Roman’s side.

Both airbags exploded out as the car lifted off the ground and fell back on all four wheels with a crash. Recovering herself first Neo grabbed at a throbbing pain on her forehead, she looked at her hand and it was covered in blood. Quivering she noticed Roman who had gone limp in his seat. She was able to cut at her seat belt with a concealed knife. Reaching across the seat she put her ear to Roman’s mouth to feel the faint breaths still coming and going. Looking outside the car she noticed more cars surrounding the car and a team of burly men getting out with weapons.

Roman weakly looked out in front of him then handed a flash drive with the recorded conversation to Neo, who concealed it in her bra. Roman had a struggled laugh as he told her, “That might not be a good place to hide anything where we’re going.” Roman winced as he turned his palm up and held it open. Neo grabbed and squeezed with determination on her face, ready to go down fighting. “Let them take us. They won’t kill us yet. Be brave.”

An attacker ripped the driver side door off and slid a black bag over Roman’s head. Passing out from the pain he fell limp in his arms and was dragged off. Neo screamed a soundless screech as they ripped his hand from out of hers. Tears streamed down her panicked face when they came for her. She held up her puny knife, and a trio of men grabbed her arm, socked her across the jaw, and placed another black bag over her head.  

Throwing Neo into the back seat of one of the cars they sped off to a new destination. She heard nothing from Roman or any of the attackers and hoped they only put him in a different car. She curled her knees into her chest and tried to slouch over on her side.

Face covered in the dark she was abruptly stopped when she slouched onto one of the attackers. His thick bicep was hard against her head, nothing like her scrawny, beloved partner’s, “Get off of me, freak! Sit up straight and wait.” Neo snapped upright. Holding her position for a moment before her head hung in dejection, silent tears falling from her cheeks.

The car came to a stop and one attacker grabbed Neo’s arm and dragged her out of the backseat. He led her into a building, down a flight stairs, and down a long hallway. They came to a stop and in the next room over there was a loud commotion, but impossible to make anything out.

Neo concentrated on the words when she heard a familiar voice speak. Roman argued with pain in his voice. Neo lifted her head for the first time since arriving and her guard noticed it. He set her into a chair, “Don’t do anything stupid. You and he will be back together soon enough.”

Inside Roman was handcuffed to the long solid wood table in front of him.  Animating as his pain allowed him Roman defended himself and Neo against the wrath of the united crime bosses in the kingdom of Vale. Sitting on the far end of the table was an elderly gentleman, dressed in the finest suit and tie money could buy. To Roman’s right was a trio of gentleman Roman only knew by name. Each of these colorful characters had grim, stoic faces all staring in Roman’s direction. To his left at the table was Morty, leading drug merchant and crime boss of the east side of the city of Vale,  Rebecca, who ran the foremost prostitution ring in the city, and next to her was Dale who led underground fighting and gambling rings in the city.

They had gathered at the behest of Roland, the eldest member at the end, and kingpin of crime in the nation to discuss Roman. “Roman you need to understand what you have done is well out of line. The current Schnee patriarch is a close ally to the underground world of Vale. You must have realized just how well connected he was when you opened his ledger.”

Roland inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly before he continued to divulge information, “It was by the request of Mr. Schnee that we tempted his young daughter with rare dust, getting her to owe that money was part of the plan. His plan was one part to see how the young girl would handle her debts and another part to make sure she didn’t seek out the dust in more dangerous locations.”

“More dangerous?! When we found the girl Morty’s man here had her pinned against the wall with a knife underneath her fucking panties!”

Morty slammed his fist on the table, “That is not what he was instructed to do! I had specific instructions on how to hand the young Schnee. If what you claim is true, he acted on his own accord.”

“Sure, blame the dead guy. You should be happy we did away with him.”

“We will return to the matter of the Schnee robbery, but let us handle this. Bring in the young lady with Roman!” The doors flew open and Neo was being led by her guard. He placed her three large paces to the left of Roman and pulled off her head cover. Red streaks marked her face from the tears, her forehead continued to bleed, which she wiped off with her sleeve until a guard was ordered to give her a towel, and she franticly scanned the room for a way to get them both out. Rebecca’s eyes quickly widened at the sight of the bag revealing the girl’s face. Leaning over she and Dale began to whisper to each other, the pair had a lot to say about their new guest.

Morty pushed back his chair and rose to his feet yelling, “An eye for an eye! Torchwick took one of mine, I deserve to take one of his!”

“Your opinion is noted. Take your seat, and do not speak out of turn again.” Morty slunk back in his chair and Roman remained stone faced despite Morty getting yelled at and despite Neo’s life in balance. “Now miss, please tell me, are you the one who killed Morty’s subordinate that night you met Weiss Schnee?”

Neo looked at Roman, tears welling in her eyes, “Tell the truth, only the truth can help us now.” Roland glared in Roman’s direction but gave no verbal warning. Neo looked back at the kingpin and nodded.

“Say it in words.” Quivering now Neo’s knees buckled, never in her life had she made such a heroic effort to hold back tears. The lump in her throat bobbed up and down as she choked down the urge. She continued to simply nod yes.

Finally Rebecca spoke, “Sir. I believe the rumor is this girl is actually completely mute.”

“Is this true Roman?”

“Yes sir. Neo is completely mute and has never said a single word for as long as I’ve known her.”

“Then I will ask yes or no questions. If I need more clarification I will ask Roman. Bring us something to write with in case we need it.” A guard bowed and zipped out of the room.

“That night you met Miss Schnee, was her attacker making an sort of sexual advance?” Neo’s eyes drifted up as she tried to recall but finally she shrugged her shoulders timidly.

“That means she doesn’t-“

“Yes I understand what body language is! Do not speak unless I call for you. Now miss, is it true that you are the only one under the direct employment of Mr. Torchwick.” Again Neo nodded yes.

“I have one more problem with the scene that went on that night. Even if the killing of the man was justified the manner of his execution was inhumane. I cannot condone one of our own being killed like this for doing his job. Roman, what is your discipline for her going to be?”

“Nothing. Neo is loyal to a fault, and any action she has taken is under my direct order. If you find her method so egregious then it is me at fault.

“If I may suggest something Roland?” Rebecca cooed out their leader’s name as she spoke, “She could always be put under my care. My girls and I will straighten her right out, if it’s a leadership problem.” Walking over to Neo Rebecca placed a gloved hand on her face, transferred a bit of her aura to replenish Neo’s, and the cut healed right up.

“Before I make a final decision on what to do with Roman’s only subordinate I must know; why are you making these moves in Vale? What is your end game? The counsel appreciates young startups, initiative, and the works you’ve done in Vale has improved the quality of life for all of us. And yet, I called this meeting because you are openly attacking the military, the Schnee daughter, and the Schnee vault. There is nothing to be had in these places. Nothing that will lead to long term success.”

Roman smirked before answering, “My ambition goes beyond Vale. Beyond this tired, old counsel. My end goals…unite all the kingdoms underground crime worlds. The Schnees are already half way there! The truth is I am in league with another person, who claims the title kingpin, from Haven, Cinder Fall.” The table shuddered at the name except for their leader. “There is room for us all at the new table! Cinder understands this and the Schnee patriarch understands this. It’s all in his ledger.  We are behind the times and I am catching us up. But if there’s one person I need more than anyone in this room is this girl to my left. You _cannot_ split us up.”

“Roman. I will allow this, but you must do something for this counsel. You have infiltrated the ranks of Cinder Fall to at least some degree. You must now report to us any plans and strategies she lets you in on, and if given the opportunity you will hunt out the strategies she wishes to remain a secret.”

“Uncuff them both. Miss, if you could take a seat next to Roman.” Sitting down slowly their hands grazed each other’s and the chest pounding, butterflies, and cold sweats seemed to fade away. “Roman you will return the Schnee ledger at your nearest convenience and we’ll call the saber collateral damage. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about the military, and we will not be providing aid for you in anyway. If Cinder believes you are acting alone we will keep it that way.”

“Heed my only warning Roman. If I hear you or your subordinate butchers anyone unjustly like that again I will bring an end to you. And heed my advice; do not consider this counsel simply old and tired, you may just fit in yet.”

**Author's Note:**

> All comments, qualms, quandaries, and curse words below please! I really appreciate all the comment love my last story got, if anything tickles you in particular, good or bad, I'd love to hear about it.


End file.
